A literary murder mystery and a tale of modern love from an Orange-longlisted author

When Kit goes to a dance class she is hoping simply to take her mind off her studies. Soon it looks like Joe, a stranger she meets there, might do more than that.

But as Kit uncovers a mystery involving the young Charles Dickens and the slaughter of a prostitute known as The Countess, she is sucked back in to the world of books, and discovers how Dickens became tangled up with this horrendous crime.

'Blood swashes between ancient pages and modern pavements, while twenty-first-century love is laid tenderly but unflinchingly bare in this ultimately strange and lingering novel.'
Independent on Sunday

'Sharp, acute, comic and true to life.'
Scotsman

'A dark delight of a novel.'
Metro

'Gowers's writing is absolutely beautiful.'
The Times